TiscaliGames.cz article translated by Deadfast

ArmA 2 general discussion

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TiscaliGames.cz article translated by Deadfast

Post by Snake Man » 2007-09-02 17:24:12

Deadfast translated this article to english and posted it to BIS forum topic but you can read it here below.

TiscaliGames.cz article

We've taken a deep look on the fresh continuation of military simulation, previously called "Game 2" at IDEA Games kiosk at GC, and the chief of developing team, Marek Špan?l had answered us a lot of questions, including details about datadisc for first ArmA.

You would hardly find more sunken kiosk at Game Convention. It was in the back of hall that was restricted only for journalists and not many people passing by had the idea, that presented project might stand up to the Operation Flashpoint 2 by Codemasters. Well, in the middle of all the "hot-titles" like Stalin Subway 2 no surprise.
However thanks to this fact I had a lot of time to ask the chief of Bohemia Interactive, Marek Špan?l (note: aka Maruk), who was very compliant, about everything he could tell me in the current state of game. It's quite a lot, as you can see yourself in this preview full of hot informations.

The plot
The complication of story is indicated by presence of 4 factions, hostile between each other, in fictional post-soviet republic Chernarus (note: in Czech it sounds pretty close to "Black Russia").
Pro-Russian faction invades part of this republic and starts to terrorize its inhabitants. The government is almost powerless against this, therefore they ask USA for help. And so, like a member of US Marines you're send to area to stabilize the situation.

However even Russia joins the game, using destruction of radical national anti-Russian army as cover. It (anti-Russian army) doesn't use too gentle behavior to civilian inhabitants either, therefore this Russian step looks legitimate for a first look. USA retracts all troops as and reaction to this. However you and few other soldiers get stuck here...

If you were following the orders all the way there, now you have full freedom of choices and it's up to you if you decide to look for shortest way out of the island, or if you decide to find out what really stands behind this conflict. The needs of civilian inhabitants were always on a second place - on a first place it was always mineral wealthiness of Chernarus - uranium.

Speaking of freedom of choice, it's not only about being able to go anywhere, anytime. Some factions are not automatically hostile toward you and you can join them. Of course, they expect little something as an exchange and you can mess up your relationships with someone else. Important is also you repute between civilians (in city around dozens of people) and it's again only up to you, if you help little village against attack by one of the terroristic factions.

No matter that the idea of playing by all sides of conflict has been already used several times, I can't remember a game which used it in such a huge open world - Chernarus is 300 km[sup]2[/sup] and everything is created in 1:1 scale after Czech Central Mountains (note: map -marked in green, Wikipedia article).

You're not alone
Most of the times you'll have a squad with 5 members, between which you'll be able to switch. "The game idea is, it shouldn't be all about save/load. When I loose a squad-mate, he'll get replaced in time. We don't want to frustrate playing with fear of life lead to saving all the time", said Marek Špan?l (note: ah, god no... this may mean very crappy character story).

Video: Street combat - AI behavior, hand signals, RPK-74

In first ArmA AI players were walking in the middle of a street most of the time. We're not going to see it again in ArmA 2, because of significant AI behavior improvement. It takes cover carefully, without the need of special orders. The game gets a different feeling thanks to that, as you can see in GC video above. A little user friendly improvement might be reloading while moving (note: great !.

New killing machines
Important role for USMC will be played by AAV (note: Amphibious Assault Vehicle) which will be often used for its adaptability. Russians will get modern tanks as is T-90, less protected, but amphibious BMP-3, eight-wheeled APC BTR-90 and anti-air Tonguska-M1.

American side will also get a new transport helicopter - C-130J Super Hercules and a new jet - F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Russia will get the Mil Mi-24 Hind, which was somewhat an icon of Operation Flashpoint and here it returns. You see yourself, how detailed the model is in another video below.
And because ArmA 2 takes place in near future, aside from already mentioned military vehicles, you can look forward to vehicles that are not used in current conflicts yet.

Video: Mi-24

Less is sometimes more
"In ArmA 2 we mainly concentrate on 2 game modes, not on game mode number like in the previous games," replied BI chief on question about multi-player.
One of the game modes will be about controlling the island, where teams are gaining territories, in return the team gets money/credits. Each team selects its commander that can use money/credits for buying vehicles and building factories.

It's a very interesting combination between FPS and strategy, which success proves mod for Half Life - Natural Selection or unofficial mission for Operation Flashpoint, which creator is even cooperating with BI. Of course this mode can take few hours.

Second MP mode is based on campaign and you cooperate with another human players against AI. Bohemia Interactive is trying to port as much goals/missions from single-player to multi-player as possible. The most important information is, that the game progress, including all changes in game world would save, so you could continue later. This upgrades the most popular ArmA mission Evolution.

Technical aspects
Some people may be disappointed by physical model, that almost copy the one from first ArmA and doesn't allow as it's "competition" from next-gen FPS, such as Battlefield: Bad Company. You'll be again able to destroy smaller objects as boxes and dustbins. Building will collapse at once. It's a pity, but on the other hand implementation of more complicated destruction effect would take way too much of time and system resources.

The story is all set to autumn and if there wouldn't be for the orange tree leafs, the whole world would look very grimly. One of the industrial area's architecture looked like ported out of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., what isn't a coincidence, because both games are set to post-soviet countries. The game should fully support DirectX 10 and Windows Vista.

When, on what and with who ?
In the end we spoke with Marek Špan?l also about ArmA 2's console version, that should be identical with the one for PC. The only difference will be magnetic aim cross (note: autoaim, I guess), and as I was ensure by Marek, there will be no other simplification. The question is, for which console(s) the game is going to be released. It's all up to publisher, that's being searched for at the moment.

Also selection of copy protection is up to publisher, but the creators gained a lot of experiences in this area, so the problems with StarForce shouldn't repeat again (note: thank god). Release date is so far set to June 2008, but as Marek Špan?l said, it can go up/down by 6 months

Video: Industrial Area - AK-74 with Kobra
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